People Self-concepts in Brand Selection

As a shopaholic, I always buy so many of different clothes all year round in order to make me look more attractive. And I prefer to choose some brands, because I think that well-known brands often symbolize high quality, which can show others my good taste. As a fashion lover, I spend my spare time reading some fashion magazines to look for stylish clothing match on different brands. So this title arouse my interests and I really want to know “Who You Are Affects What You Buy”.

This article is a balanced essay regarding people self-concepts in brand selection. It not only illustrates the theoretical relationship to self-image congruity and social identity on brand preference, but also presents that there are some limitations in this current study. For example, in the second half of the article, the author groups 65 people by gender, race and age to conduct an online questionnaire survey, and then he finds the corresponding linear regression relationship statistically, which is demonstrated through mathematical perspective. At the same time, it is acknowledged that there are a series of factors such as the selected subjects from single source and the inaccurate selection of the brand, which may lead to the insufficiency of these experiment results. To be more specific, the linear regression analysis mathematical model used in this article is not sufficiently detailed, and actually has affected the accuracy of a large part of the experimental results, then affecting the reliability of the final conclusion. So I am skeptical about the conclusions of the later stages of the experiment. And I think that the sample size of the model analysis is not representative and persuasive, because it is too small and limited. For example, in the minority ethnic classification, the sample size in Asia is only 1 and minority races except for whites are merely Asian-Americans and Hispanic-Americans. Such a small-scale sample cannot explain the selection tendency of the whole group.

Surely, there are many pros in this article, as we can see, a large number of scholars' opinions used to support and introduce some necessary concepts and arguments. For example, Sirgy's self-image congruity theory is used to explain and propose the relationship between the more specific aspect of self-concept and brand preference in order to propose key viewpoints properly. To be noteworthy, Morgan A. Ilaw is a senior analyst at a company named Vital Findings, majoring marketing research. This essay analyses a large amount of data to prove her points, which is very convenient for the readers of this magazine including undergraduates and postgraduates. Similarly, the article also mentioned that it is very suitable for the marketers and advertisers in need because of helping them to streamline their marketing plans effectively.